A TYPICAL BATTLE INCIDENT

“An incident that occurred Sunday, the 27th, serves to illustrate the type of fighting that has for the last two weeks been going on intermittently on various parts of our lines.  It also brings out the extreme difficulty of ascertaining what is actually happening during an action apart from what seems to be happening, and points to the value of good intrenchments.

“At a certain point in our front our advance trenches were on the north of the Aisne, not far from a village on a hillside and also within a short distance of German works, being on a slope of a spur formed by a subsidiary valley running north and a main valley of the river.  It was a calm, sunny afternoon, but hazy, and from our point of vantage south of the river it was difficult exactly to locate on the far bank the well-concealed trenches.

“From far and near the sullen boom of guns echoed along the valley, and at intervals in a different direction the sky was flecked with the almost motionless smoke of anti-aircraft shrapnel.

“Suddenly and without any warning, for the reports of the distant howitzers from which they were fired could not be distinguished from other distant reports, three or four heavy shells fell into the village, sending up huge clouds of dust and smoke, which ascended in a brownish-gray column.  To this no reply was made by our side.

“Shortly afterwards there was a quick succession of reports from a point some distance up the subsidiary valley on the side opposite our trenches and therefore rather on their flank.  It was not possible either by ear or by eye to locate the guns from which the sounds proceeded.  Almost simultaneously, as it seemed, there was a corresponding succession of flashes and sharp detonations in the line along the hillside along what appeared to be our trenches.

“There was then a pause and several clouds of smoke rose slowly and remained stationary, spaced as regularly as poplars.

“Again there was a succession of reports from German quick-firers on the far side of the misty valley and like echoes of detonations of high explosives; then the row of expanding smoke clouds was prolonged by several new ones.  Another pause and silence, except for the noise in the distance.

“After a few minutes there was a roar from our side of the main valley as our field guns opened one after another in a more deliberate fire upon the positions of the German guns.  After six reports there was again silence save for the whirr of shells as they sang up the small valley.  Then followed flashes and balls of smoke—­one, two, three, four, five, six—­as the shrapnel burst nicely over what in the haze looked like some ruined buildings at the edge of the wood.

TRYING TO ENFILADE THE TRENCHES

“Again, after a short interval, the enemy’s gunners reopened with a burst, still further prolonging the smoke, which was by now merged into one solid screen above a considerable length of the trenches and again did our guns reply.  And so the duel went on for some time.